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Macron declared a new phase from Monday the 11th , when we no longer had to carry an Attestation de Sortie and could travel up to 100km from home.

Some maternelle and certain primary classes in ‘Green’ Regions opened from last Tuesday. 70 or so were re-closed as very isolated cases were discovered by the weekend, all in teachers/school cleaners not the children afaik.

SIL was back this Monday, teaching English in a mask with a secondary class with three quarters of the desks taken out, so 7kids instead of 28 ! They do half a day only, reduced week but don’t know detail. No playground apparently so they are stuck at their desks, which MUST be absolute Hell for them. For those still at home distance teaching continues .

Very hard for the cleaning staff, lots of disinfecting after the furniture-moving . Corridors with one-way systems, hand gel everywhere …

His own three boys from 6 to 13 are happy at home, well up on the ‘programme’, and entertain themselves very well . Other example i had yesterday, a 5yo single child VERY eager to be back at school . Having siblings makes a great difference .

Daughter might begin lycée next month, but distance teaching only for the moment. Reduced load now as “Bac’s” have been awarded on classwork only , so the future ‘leavers’ are skiving

An English woman Polly in rural Normandy was on Woman’s Hour yesterday (10.24 ) — distance learning going fine for a 15yo, the teachers stepping up to that very well.----------------------------------As in UK all kindergardens schools can look after children of essential workers.

Thanks for the info about what's happening elsewhere, I know the info is out there, but it's nice to hear first hand experiences. It confirms my impression that schools are being re-opened alongside other easing, not ahead of everyone else. The main issue, of course, is our infection rate is still high so even if we get a decent track and trace system in place there are going to be too many cases for it to work. Frustratingly we probably only needed to keep lockdown in place for a few extra weeks - the weeks we were behind Italy & Spain in the first place - to get there. Scotland, Wales and NI should fare better if that's the case.

_________________“Of all the trees we could've hit, we had to get one that hits back.”

Imagine the outrage if a school HT or a member of a Governing Body tried to do something similar. But then we have rules that need to be adhered to and we get asked about conflict of interests at every meeting...

_________________If I'm not here, then I'll be in the library. Or the other library.

Thanks for the info about what's happening elsewhere, I know the info is out there, but it's nice to hear first hand experiences. It confirms my impression that schools are being re-opened alongside other easing, not ahead of everyone else. The main issue, of course, is our infection rate is still high so even if we get a decent track and trace system in place there are going to be too many cases for it to work. Frustratingly we probably only needed to keep lockdown in place for a few extra weeks - the weeks we were behind Italy & Spain in the first place - to get there. Scotland, Wales and NI should fare better if that's the case.

Hi Willow

My pleasure

One thing I would also say is that we have not been in the strict lockdown as France have (although we have reduced cases significantly) and the restrictions have been enforced but not in the way the French did.

Each country has their own particular culture and approach and, as we are still 'en pleine crise' to a certain extent it is too soon to be saying who had the best approach. The UK will not have had it though as it has been chaotic - Sweden took a different approach but it is consistent and backed up by certain assumptions. The UK has been incoherent.

One other difference here is the absence of huge polarisation - most people see the benefit of lockdown and also see we need to get out of it as soon as possible but sensibly. The UK seems (from where I sit) to divide between those who want to restart at any cost and those who want to take no risks whatsoever - again an indication of the ineptness of Government

My wife is a teacher, she has been working for two weeks now. She is taking a risk but we talked about it and we though it was justified and mitigated. The vast majority of kids are back as well - very few absences.

I would also like to voice another opinion (and it just an opinion) that a robust lockdown was required from early March in order to get numbers down, I now think is is very possible that the 'normal' we are seeing applied across central Europe now may be the most appropriate for now.

There is a risk of a 'second wave' but I have two comments on that - we have not seen one anywhere yet (what we have seen is isolated hotspot cases in countries with very low numbers) and there is no reason it would be more 'deadly' - most justification for this is based on 1918 flu which seems to be a bit of an over-extrapolation. I can see the fear of there being a wave that coincides with seasonal flu though and that would cause an issue. To me though that also highlights that seasonal flu effects a lot of people (look at EUROMOMO winter data for excess deaths to see that) and we should also be taking that more seriously as well!

A second wave is an epidemiological model out put based on the susceptibility in the population still being high due to low immunity levels. This makes absolute sense but the prediction of the size and timing of this is just as good as the model assumption data quality and that is another thing.

We need to be vigilant - measure the numbers of cases and have a track and trace infrastructure in place to help - track and trace is a mitigation measure. It will not define the actual risk of the second wave (that will be based on the viral behaviour and transmission) but will help us to reduce the consequence. To go into the next few months without it and trying to ease the lockdown doesn't seem to be at all sensible!

Imagine the outrage if a school HT or a member of a Governing Body tried to do something similar. But then we have rules that need to be adhered to and we get asked about conflict of interests at every meeting...

Arcuri’s events were able to attract very “interesting” speakers. For a start Boris Johnson would lend his support by agreeing to be a keynote speaker ensuring publicity, sponsorship & attendees...but what other type of speakers do you think came....?

Imagine the outrage if a school HT or a member of a Governing Body tried to do something similar. But then we have rules that need to be adhered to and we get asked about conflict of interests at every meeting...

Arcuri’s events were able to attract very “interesting” speakers. For a start Boris Johnson would lend his support by agreeing to be a keynote speaker ensuring publicity, sponsorship & attendees...but what other type of speakers do you think came....?

No 10 has clarified that the new policy, removing all NHS and care workers from the NHS surcharge, will cover “all NHS workers, ranging from medical health staff including vital porters and cleaners”. It also includes independent health workers and social care workers. (Politics Live, Guardian)

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